Having recorded 19 studio albums since 1974, Rush‘s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson had a prolific amount of music to choose from while curating the setlist for opening night of their massive Fifty Something Tour on Sunday night (June 7) at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum.
The 22 songs played during the three-hour show pulled from the Canadian group’s first studio album, its last and those from the roughly four decades in between, featuring many (but not all) of the major hits, loads of primordial rock and a few softer pieces, dealing heavily in Rush’s much-loved synthesizer-forward work of the early ’80s.
It was a thrill to hear it all, with the radio hits and deeper cuts alike earning fist bumps and Wayne’s World style “we’re not worthy” bows from the rapt audience. While crowds around the world have certainly heard most, if not all, of the songs from the setlist live over Rush’s 50-year tenure, there was a crucial factor giving each song — and the show itself, and the entire tour, frankly — a special poignancy, and that was that absence of Neil Peart, Rush’s drummer and lyricist who died of brain cancer in 2020, at age 67.
When announcing the tour last October, Lee and Lifeson advised that they’d selected 35 songs from the catalog to rotate during the tour, and that every show would feature a tribute to Peart and “everything that he was to us.” But “tribute” feels too small a word for the way Peart was thoughtfully woven into the entire show, as he appeared often via vintage performance videos, audio recordings made before he died, digital renderings and, of course, the formidable body of music he helped create.
Encompassing 88 shows, the Fifty Something tour will cross North America through the end of 2026 and head to South America and Europe next year. Here’s the complete setlist from night one of the run.
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“Xanadu”
From 1977’s A Farewell To Kings.
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“Limelight”
From 1981’s Moving Pictures, and a song that spent 55 weeks on the Hot 100 in the spring of that same year.
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“Far Cry”
The lead single from Rush’s 2007 album Snakes & Arrows.
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“Subdivisions”
The second single from Rush’s 1982 album, Signals.
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“Freewill”
From Rush’s 1980 LP Permanent Waves.
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“Bravado”
From 1991’s Roll The Bones.
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“Caravan”
The lead single from 2012’s Clockwork Angels, Rush’s 19th, and last, studio album.
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“La Villa Strangiato”
From 1978’s Hemispheres, “La Villa Strangiato” is subtitled “An Exercise Is Self-Indulgence” and was the band’s first entirely instrumental song.
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“Vital Signs”
The closing track on 1981’s Moving Pictures.
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“The Spirit Of Radio”
The opening track of 1980’s Permanent Waves.
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“2112: Overture / The Temples of Syrinx / Grand Finale”
Three parts taken from Rush’s seven-part, 20-minute epic, which functioned as the opening song on 1976’s 2112.
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“Distant Early Warning”
The opening song from 1984’s Grace Under Pressure.
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“Red Barchetta”
From 1981’s Moving Pictures.
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“Dreamline”
The opening song from 1991’s Roll The Bones.
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“Natural Science”
The final track on 1980’s Permanent Waves.
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“Time Stand Still”
The second song on 1987’s Hold Your Fire features guest vocalist Aimee Mann, who also came out to duet with Lee during the show.
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“Red Sector A”
From 1984’s Grace Under Pressure.
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“YYZ”
From 1981’s Moving Pictures.
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“The Garden”
The closing track on 2012’s Clockwork Angels.
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“Tom Sawyer”
The opening track from Moving Pictures.
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“By-Tor And The Snow Dog”
The only song from the set to come from 1975’s Fly By Night.
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“Working Man”
The final song on Rush’s eponymous 1974 debut album.
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